Amber Alert canceled after missing girl is found safe

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TACOMA, Wash. - An Amber Alert issued for a 16-year-old girl with mental disabilities was canceled Wednesday morning after the girl was found safe.

Tacoma police spokesman Mark Fulghum said tips led officers to house in North Tacoma about 7:45 a.m. where they found Briana Troyer and 21-year-old Terrence D. Powell asleep.

Fulghum said the girl will be returned to her family. Her father is Pierce County sheriff's spokesman Ed Troyer.

Investigators will determine if Powell did anything wrong. He's a Level 1 sex offender who left a Tacoma bowling alley Tuesday with the girl. She's a special education student with a mental capacity of a 9-year-old, according to police.

Briana was at Tower Lanes on Tuesday evening with other members of the Wilson High School bowling team for practice when she apparently walked away with Powell.

Fulghum said the coach or supervisor may not have been there at 5:30 p.m. when she disappeared.

Troyer, who is the Amber Alert coordinator for Pierce County, did not want to comment while the search was under way but supported Tacoma police in a posting on his Facebook page.

"I am going to stay off the media as much as possible due to not wanting the suspect to see who I am, which could bring harm to Briana. Tacoma Police are doing an excellent job and are leaving nothing unchecked. When the time is right I will share what we are going through and what happened," the post said.

Fulghum did not know the criminal history that led to Powell's listing as a Level 1 sex offender. The classification is the lowest level and applied to people, many of them first-time offenders, considered at minimal risk to reoffend.